Mephone has always been terrified of Cobs, but the brain can only take so much scrutiny. Mephone snaps after Cobs hurts his contestants. With a new crack in his screen, the reappearance of a power Mephone thought had vanished, and Cobs(?) always loo...
WHAT UP BITCHES IM BACK ON MY BULLSHIT 😎 ----------------
~~~~~~~~~sometime in the past...~~~~~~~~
The large purple striped egg sat in a glass container. The inventor removed it from the box, carful not to crack it's delicate shell. He moved it to his work table, appliances littering it's surface. He connected a verity of wires and sensors to it's shell, multitasking as he typed away on a laptop. The wires connected to various machines the public eye has never witnessed, they were his own creations after all.
The machines whirred to life, they beeped and clicked in a monotonous symphony as he opened a drawer. He produced a file from it, a few papers already inside from his many days of research. He unclipped a black marker, it's ink staining his hand as he wrote. "Project: Shimmer" he scrawled in messy handwriting, his nerves still stiff from his weeks of work. He capped the marker and carelessly threw it back in the drawer.
His eyes held a greed no man should posses. Phase one was already complete, only one egg had survived the journey, but he was smart, he could work with it. Unfortunate given his intentions, the poor thing would have to suffer more from 3gs's incompetence he supposed. He adjusted his smudged glasses, the defenseless egg reflecting in them. Despite only having one egg, he still needed a backup chip just in case the first doesn't turn out the way it should.
It wasn't optimal, but he would make it work. He always did. A machine dinged as a picture loaded on the screen. It resembled an x-ray, the egg being drawn in muted blues and whites. The egg's center was completely white, practically glowing on the screen. He nodded, there it was, that's what he was after.
A drill in one hand and a scalpel in the other Cobs secured the egg to the desk. He cracked his fingers and readied his tools. This would be tricky, but it would be worth it, this new creation would be infinity better than it's predecessors, he was sure of it. The drill blared as Cobs strategically began his heinous work.
If anything, this was the easy part.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ° ° ° • • • • • . . . .
.
.
It's been 4 days since the others came back from MeCloud, and 3 hours since Test Tube found Mephone and brought him back to the hotel. Mephone was silent when he arrived, but not like he usually was. Instead of acting like he had everything to say and no one to tell it to, he looked spent and tired, as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Test Tube practically guarded him from the others. She stayed with him the whole time, dodging question after question regarding Mephone's disappearance.
It was obvious to everyone that something happened when Test Tube found Mephone, but neither of them would speak on it. Mephone being too emotionally exhausted to give an answer and Test Tube refusing to give any information at all. They all went to bed that night confused and frustrated at the lack of explanation. Well, most of them anyway.
Mephone trudged down the hall, his feet and legs sore after walking for so long. Test Tube guided him to the medical office in silence, but it wasn't tense. The atmosphere was calm, an air of understanding between them now unlike before. They entered the med office, tired and drained after such a long day. As Mephone went to open the infirmary door Test Tube stopped him.
She gently rested a comforting hand on his shoulder. "...Mephone." He turned to her, the glow from his eyes glinting off her glass. Her face showed her exhaustion, but it couldn't dull the genuine care he saw in it. "I'm telling you this not as your contestant, but as a friend..." Mephone's eyes widened slightly at her words. "..If there is anything, and I mean anything, you want to talk about, my door is always open....." Mephone breathed sharply, taken aback.
She had no idea how much that meant. A feeling Mephone didn't recognize fell over him. He felt happy, safe, and yet terrified all at once. "Its alright if you don't want to but-" she patted him on the shoulder. "-you can talk to me..." Mephone felt overwhelmed, but not in a bad way. He was speechless. She was telling the truth.... Not trusting himself to talk Mephone nodded stiffly. Test Tube smiled with a gentleness Mephone never thought would be directed towards himself.
She pulled away before turning to go back to her desk. "Thank you...." Mephone choked out. She stopped. "For helping me...in the cave I mean....." She looked back at him, smiling once again. "Anytime, Mephone....you should get some rest.." Mephone opened the infirmary door, "You should too.." he said, glancing at the desk. Test Tube laughed tiredly, "Y'know maybe you're right."
The moment Mephone shut the door he fell onto his bed, the mental and physical exhaustion getting to him. He lied on the bed for a while, staring at the ceiling. As he did, a memory gem lit up in his brain, replaying a scene he had saw hours ago. He raised his hands, blue eyes glowing brighter as he pushed them together in front of himself. Blue electric like energy danced between his fingers as he pulled his hands apart, a ribbon of cerulean blue forming in a rainbow-esque ark between his hands.
It hung in the air for a moment before breaking apart into small orbs of light. They floated upwards, their soft glow dotting the ceiling like stars. He gazed at them the same way he used to, drawing constellations between them and pondering Test Tube's words as his heavy eyes closed. His own personal stars shined down onto him as he fell asleep. And for the first time in 4 days, Mephone slept with pleasant dreams of a starry night sky, his tormentor nowhere in sight.
----------------
Test Tube dragged herself up the stairs towards her hotel room, believe it or not OJ actually let her have a room to herself due to her surplus of science equipment. As she walked down the hallway, 4 familiar voices hit her ears. The (no longer, she supposed) final four stood in the hallway talking amongst themselves. She smiled fondly, she was glad they were getting along, especially since the show was pretty much over.
"OMG- Testy!" Lightbulb noticed her immediately, greeting her with a wide smile and a wave. "It's past midnight! What are you doing up?" Lightbulb stared at her, a suspicious tone in her voice. "It's Test Tube, Lightbulb." Knife responded. "Of course she isn't asleep." He looked her over. "You should really go to bed though..."
Test Tube laughed slightly. She took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. "That's actually what I was going to do, I'd rather not fall asleep in the medical office.....again." She put her glasses back on. As she did so, a thought came to her. "Actually I've been meaning to ask you all something." Baseball raised an eyebrow. "What would that be?" Test Tube swallowed dryly.
"In the cave challenge, all of you, plus microphone, touched a blue gem correct?" Suitcase stiffened, glancing between the others. They all seemed to shift at the question, not knowing how to respond. "You....." Suitcase's voice was shaky, as if she was scared of what she was about to say. "You all saw them too.....right?"
They all looked to each other, a silent agreement forming between them. "Right then." Test Tube adjusted her glasses, suddenly awake and alert compared to before. "Let's go find Microphone."
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
-------------- 1266 words, kinda short but I think I needed to write a shorter chapter after the behemoth that was chapter 20- the next one will be longer lmao. ACT 2 BABY 😎😎😎
